


Running Through Stars

by sebfish



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Comfort, F/M, Friendship/Love, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 03:24:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebfish/pseuds/sebfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River leaves, too. </p><p>Spoilers for "The Angels Take Manhattan" and all other episodes up to that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running Through Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Not betaed, so any mistakes/weirdness is mine. Spoilers for everything aired up to "The Angels Take Manhattan".

Once upon a time when he’d been young and mad and foolish, he’d stolen a box and his granddaughter and run away.

They’d run together through stars and galaxies and civilizations and landed almost by accident on a funny little blue and green planet in the Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

 He’s lived a hundred human lives since then, and the memories are almost faded under the weight of a millennium of knowledge. He’s a different man altogether, younger and older and careworn and so very very tired. Once upon a time he’d been old and grumpy when his only loss had been the over-officiousness of Time Lords; now that his face is younger his hearts are truly stained by the touch of grief.

And now he’s said his last goodbyes to two of the people closest to him in this regeneration.

Amelia, the girl who’d never stopped believing in him even when she shouldn’t have, and Rory, the man who had never stopped believing in her. The last trip he could take to see her is taken, his last glimpse of her fittingly of her as she’d been when he first met her. He knows that she’ll be happy, that she and Rory have the rest of their lives to live, but his part in their story is ended.

The low hum of the TARDIS surrounds him soothingly as he steps up to the console, busies himself flicking levers and pushing buttons.

One last stop to take River home, then nothing else left to do but run. He needs to run and run and run and never stop because stopping means finding people you love, and finding people means someday losing them. No one stays forever, no matter how hard he tries to keep them.

The tap tap tap of heeled shoes sounds behind him, and a gentle hand rests on his shoulder. He glances briefly over his shoulder at the woman behind him and then goes back to setting a course for their next destination.

“I can’t go back either, you know, not really.” River’s tone is calm and kind, but her eyes are tired and worried. She moves away to settle herself on the captain’s chair, black dress falling around her legs like a shroud, and fold her hands carefully on her lap. “But you knew that already.”

He sets the last lever and reflexively straightens his bowtie.

“Yes, I know,” he murmurs, almost to himself. “That whole spot in time and space is already enough of a mess of paradoxes as it is.” He throws the last lever and grabs tight to the console as his ship grinds and shudders her way through a landing.

River mercifully says nothing, even though she’s made her opinions of his driving well-known at other times.

“Right then, here you are,” he straightens and says with a false cheer that he doesn’t feel.

River sighs and pushes the gold mass of her hair out of her face.

“Doctor,” she starts, hesitantly. He looks away from her and fiddles with a knob on the console. There is silence for a few moments as River weighs her words carefully before speaking. Finally, when it becomes apparent that no words will do, River steps forward to wrap him up in her arms.

The Doctor crumbles then, presses his face into her shoulder and slides his arms around her. He is so very tired and he can’t help but be thankful for this woman who has the strength to hold him up even though he knows that her time is running out and sooner rather than later she’ll be gone too.

“River?” He asks a few long moments later, pulling back slightly to look at her. He asks her name as a question, but she always knows what he means.

She pulls one hand up and wipes his face which is wet with tears he didn’t realize were falling. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “But I can’t stay. Just promise me you won’t stay alone for long.”

“Cross my hearts,” he replies. She leans up and kisses him softly, hand still on his face. When the kiss ends he leans his forehead against hers and just breathes for a moment.

“I don’t think I told you,” River says quietly, “but I’ve been hired to lead an archaeological expedition to The Library. The planet Library, not the city.”

He smiles fondly at her. “Professor River Song, my bespoke psychopath, leading archaeological expeditions. Who would’ve thought?”

She smiles back at him and finally pulls away from him. “I’ll let you know when I know when we’re leaving, so do try to remember to answer your phone.”

“I’ll try,” he responds, and keeps his smile up as she crosses to the door. She turns halfway through the door and blows him a kiss before she finishes exiting and closes the door behind her.

As soon as she’s gone, his face falls and he grips the edge of the console. The TARDIS murmurs soothingly at him and he takes some small comfort from knowing that she, at least, will stay.

“One last trip with her then, eh?” He murmurs to his ship in turn.


End file.
